Texas familiar to Hornish, Cup still work in progress

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Sam Hornish Jr.'s name shows up three times on the list of former winners in the media center lobby at Texas Motor Speedway, including one for his 2007 Indy Racing League victory.

But this is a different year, a different series, a different kind of challenge. And even though Hornish has had previous success at this place, about the only thing that's the same is the fact that he's still going counter-clockwise around the track.

Facing a "go or go home" situation because the No. 77 Dodge was 36th in owner points, Hornish's weekend didn't get off to a rip-roaring start. He was 40th-fastest in Friday's practice session, adding to concerns that perhaps the three-time IRL champion was going to miss his first race of the season.

However, when it came to qualifying, Hornish's experience at Texas paid off, as he put up a solid lap of 187.741 mph, good enough to start 17th in Sunday's Samsung 500.

"Well, we always want to run a little bit better than what we do but that was better than what we expected that we were going to be, or at least I expected we were going to be," he said. "We thought that we were far off from where we needed to be.

"We got a little bit behind in practice and couldn't get the car freed up enough and it was just way too tight. We were still too tight there but I guess we got it heading in the right direction."

Hornish was a respectable 27th in Saturday's final practice session, almost a second slower than Carl Edwards, who clicked off a fast lap of 185.052 mph to pace the 43-car field. Edwards also topped the leaderboard in the morning session, turning a lap of 187.604 mph. Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle were the only other drivers to post top-five runs in both practices.

A 72-minute delay to repair the SAFER barrier following Michael McDowell's horrific accident in qualifying only added to the pressure that Hornish was facing on Friday. As the sun began to set, the track cooled -- leaving Hornish wondering what the conditions might be like by the time he made his run.

"Whatever it helped cooling off the racetrack it was another hour I got to sit there being nervous about if we were going to make it in to this race or not," he said. "It's been a difficult day. Whatever you might gain by being cooler you have to sit there and think about what you're going to do and how you're going to do it and hope you don't screw it up that much longer."

The Ohio native's transition to stock cars has been a rocky one. He showed surprising strength in the season-opening Daytona 500, running with the lead pack for most of the race and finishing 15th. But ever since getting caught up in an early-race accident at Fontana, Hornish's season has been anything but sterling.

He hasn't been better than 25th in his last five races -- and hasn't had a lead-lap finish since Daytona. Still, Hornish knows his teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch are willing to offer their advice and experience. And a strong qualifying effort only added to his confidence level.

"We were a little bit down after the practice session ... and definitely things turned around for everyone," Hornish said. "We took what Kurt and Ryan were doing and put it together with the best of our setup and it seemed to help us out quite a bit."

Newman said the Sprint Cup rookie is facing a steep learning curve, having to deal with heavier, slower stock cars and unfamiliar tracks.

"He's conceptually learning some things about the short tracks as far as driving and footwork that he hadn't had to experience in the past," Newman said. "Even in the Nationwide car you can drive differently than the Cup car. He's still learning, but his run at Daytona was the most impressive and what I would call a great run for a rookie."

On Wednesday night, Hornish was given the Sportsmanship Award by the track for his annual celebrity bowling tournament, which has generated more than $300,000 for Speedway Children's Charities over the past three years.